How Is Juicing Healthy?

How Is Juicing Healthy?

There are two ways to consider the question, “How Is Juicing Healthy?”. One way is to expect me to list all of the benefits of juicing. The other is the opposite viewpoint, that juicing removes the fiber from whole fruit and vegetables and leads to a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. So what is the right answer?

First, let’s investigate How Is Juicing Healthy from the benefits side.

Benefits of Juicing

One major benefit of juicing is that you are more likely to take your recommended daily allowance of fruits and veggies from drinking juice rather than eating them whole.

in 2009, an estimated 32.5% of adults consumed fruit two or more times per day and 26.3% consumed vegetables three or more times per day, far short of the national targets.

This means that over 2/3 of American adults are not eating enough fruits and vegetables. There is strong evidence that eating a diet high in fresh produce leads to a reduced risk for death related illness and is an important part of a good weight management program.

Absorption of Nutrients

Proponents of juicing say and experts acknowledge that the nutrients in juice are absorbed by the body faster than when they are chewed. Also, the reduced fiber load gives your body’s digestive system a break. However, this is a double-edged sword. The faster digestion leads to quicker and more extreme hunger. So, now you want to eat more in between meals, often of the high-calorie junk food variety, thus negating the health benefit of the increased fruit and veggie intake.

Since we’re talking juicing here as opposed to drinking store bought juice let’s discuss the benefits of homemade juice over packaged. In order to extend shelf life and attractiveness of packaged juice, manufacturers pasteurize, i.e. heat up the juice, or add chemicals and sugar to the product. These are additives that are not good for you, adding workload to your liver and kidneys and increasing your sugar intake in a modern diet already high in sugar.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 recommends limiting total intake of discretionary calories, including both added sugars and solid fats, to 5%–15% per day. Recent analyses indicate that children and adolescents obtain approximately 16% of their total caloric intake from added sugars.

Toxic Cleansing

Naturopaths and proponents go so far as to recommend juicing as a diet to cleanse toxins from your system and to treat diseases like cancer. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support these claims but as yet scientific studies do not back up these claims. I’ll leave that discussion for another time.

Juicing For Weight Loss

Juicing for weight loss can easily backfire. Our taste for sugar, developed over years of added sugar in our packaged and restaurant foods, makes us want pure fruit juice or more fruit in our mixed fruit and veggie cocktails. Fruit is higher in calories than vegetables.

By juicing our fruits and veggies we may not get enough fiber or protein to make us feel full, leading to eating in-between-meal snacks and the temptation to cheat with lattés and doughnuts.

Juicing For Diabetics

Diabetes is a progressive disease that causes heart disease, blindness, kidneyfailure, and lower-extremity amputations. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.

Liquid sugar is absorbed into our bodies much faster than when it is part of the solid food. Thus, in diabetics and pre-diabetics who may not even know they have the disease, drinking fruit and vegetable juices causes a dangerous spike in blood sugar readings.

Therefore, to avoid this, diabetics should not drink pure fruit juice, especially the packaged kind, as a meal substitute. Eat whole food high in fiber and protein or make vegetable smoothies with a small amount of fruit added to sweeten.

Conclusion

So, to summarize How Is Juicing Healthy – there are definite benefits to juicing but also hidden dangers. To get the most out of juicing:

Use juicing as a supplement, not a stand-alone meal substitute. Add a low-fat, nutrient-rich energy surge to a diet that is high in fiber and protein. This will counter the hunger attack that can follow a juice drink alone.

Experiment with different vegetable juices to find the combination that has you wanting to go back for more. Try leafy greens, kale with cucumber, and add a citrus fruit like grapefruit or orange. Other good choices are spinach, collard or mustard greens, swiss chard, carrots, and beets. Add a small amount of fruit for sweetness.

Drink your juice immediately after making it. Some juicers, (masticating type), produce juice with a longer shelf life than others, (centrifugal type). But nutrients start to degrade the minute after they are made.

Don’t throw away that fiber-rich pulp. Add to the mix when making muffins or crumble it over your oatmeal to enjoy its many benefits.

Got an opinion, comment, or question? Share it below in the comments box. Thanks for reading.

2 Replies to “How Is Juicing Healthy?”

My mother just recently got into juicing. Well, actually over the past year. She’s enjoying it but hasn’t been very satisfied with the juicer that she got. Probably because she doesn’t know much about it (me either).
She started juicing because my grandmother (her mother) who’s diabetic heard about the benefits of juicing. I’m happy to say that her diabetic problems are gone now thanks to juicing.
I’ll send my mother this blog to have her take a look at your juicer recommendations.
Thanks for sharing!